SNAKES ON THE USANGU PLAINS:

AN INTRODUCTION TO SANGU ETHNOHERPETOLOGY

Martin T. Walsh

Natural Resources Institute, Chatham, and

School of African and Asian Studies, University of Sussex, U.K.

corrected version of a paper originally published in

East Africa Natural History Society Bulletin, 25 (3): 38-43

September 1995

{NB: the page numbers in this version do

not follow those of the published text}

current address:
kisutu@hotmail.com
EANHS Bulletin 25 (3), September 1995
______________________________________________________________________________
SNAKES ON THE USANGU PLAINS:
AN INTRODUCTION TO SANGU ETHNOHERPETOLOGY
This paper is based on notes I made while
conducting anthropological fieldwork in the
Usangu Plains of south-west Tanzania in
1980-82. I did not make a systematic study
of Sangu ethnoherpetology and was ill-
equipped at that time to identify the snakes
which I saw and those which were described
to me (the same applies to other reptiles,
which are not discussed further here).
However, while recently re-reading through
my field notes and manuscript dictionary of
ishisango, the Sangu language, I found that
there was sufficient information to identify
some of the named varieties which I was
told about. I have therefore decided to
publish this information, together with some
additional observations and comments, in
the hope that it will provide a useful starting
point for future researchers.
The Usangu Plains
The Usangu Plains lie in the eastern Rift
Valley just south of Ruaha National Park, at
an average elevation of 1,000 metres above
sea-level. They take the form of a shallow
alluvial basin, covering an estimated total
area of 15,560 km2. To the south and west
they are hemmed in by the Southern
Highlands and the mountain ranges which
rise up from the northern shores of Lake
Malawi. The streams and rivers which flow
down from these mountains join in Usangu
to form the Great Ruaha river which
meanders out of the Plains to the north-east.
There is one wet season, from December to
April. This is invariably accompanied by
substantial flooding, and the floodwaters
often remain until the dry season is well
underway. For half of the year, however,
from June onwards, most of Usangu takes
on a semi-arid aspect.
The vegetation of Usangu has been
described in outline by Procter (1968) and
his classification supported by Charnley
(1994), who also provides a detailed
description and analysis of recent patterns of
ecological change on the Usangu Plains.
According to Procter, the Plains host eleven
1
major habitats with specific vegetation
associations, ranging from rivers and
permanent wetlands, through seasonally
inundated flood-plains and grasslands, to
thickets, thorn-bush and woodlands
dominated by different tree species. The
history of the human population in Usangu
and patterns of land use in the Plains have
been described by me (1984) and, with
particular emphasis upon immigrant groups
and pastoral resources, by Charnley (1994).
Snakes on the Usangu Plains
As far as I am aware, no survey of Usangu’s
herpetological fauna, and of snakes in
particular, has ever been undertaken, though
I assume that some collections have been
made there. Given the wide range of
habitats available in Usangu and our general
knowledge of snakes and their distribution
in this region, it can be assumed that the
Plains support a wide variety of snake
species.
Snakes are certainly everywhere in
evidence, as a number of travellers to
Usangu have been quick to notice. Marius
Fortie, an adventurer who crossed Usangu
in September 1934, begins his account of
this journey by describing how he shot a
five-foot Puff Adder in two. This
unfortunate serpent had made the mistake of
visiting Fortie while he was in the middle of
a taking a bath in a room in the derelict
compound of Brandt Mission. Later he was
able to brush this incident aside: “On
entering Usango I saw the trails so
crisscrossed with the tracks of the cobras
and vipers which thrive in those hot sandy
plains, that when the puff adder interrupted
my bath at Brandt I was not much startled”
(1938, p.279). Further on in his account he
provides us with a more comforting
perspective: “Although snakes are
numerous, casualties from snake bites are
rare because the puff adder, the most
common venomous reptile, is so sluggish
that it seldom strikes unless actually stepped
upon” (1938, p.293).
EANHS Bulletin 25 (3), September 1995
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My own experience in Usangu was
similar, though I did not see any Puff
Adders, which are well camouflaged and
whose numbers have probably been
considerably reduced since the 1930s in the
increasingly populous areas of the southern
Plains where people are apt to kill any
which they come across. However, when
walking the three-hour journey between
Igurusi and Utengule, I invariably saw at
least one snake crossing the dirt track. On
forays into the bush around Utengule and
Luhanga I always found it wise to let one of
the villagers lead the way, given their
greater skill in spotting snakes on or by the
path. In Utengule itself, where I lived, I was
taught to give a wide berth to any long and
thin object I might see on the path at night,
and got so used to doing this that for many
months after returning to England I would
sometimes surprise friends by pulling up
with a start in front of twigs on the
pavement.
On one occasion, now humorous to
relate, I had to flee from a latrine when a
large dark snake appeared through a crack
in the earthen wall. Another incident
occurred in a friend’s house. Some time
earlier a large snake had been killed in the
house while in the process of raiding a nest
of hen’s eggs. My friend declared that
sooner or later the snake’s spouse would
also appear. Sure enough, one night as we
were eating dinner, a large snake slithered
under the front door, scattering all of those
present, including the mother of the
household who was sitting on the cement
floor with her children. This snake also
headed for the hen’s nest, but was
dispatched by my friend and another guest
with a couple of long sticks.
I recorded a few instances of snake bite,
but none in which death had resulted. One
interesting case of serious snake bite
occurred following the appearance of a
Sukuma (on other accounts Fipa) snake-
charmer in Utengule on 29 March 1981. He
drew a large crowd at one of the drinking-
clubs in the village when he stood in the
middle of the open ground and let two
sizeable snakes (described in my notes as
‘cobras’) crawl and intertwine over his
body. He was subsequently reported to be
2
selling medicine to guard against snake bite
on the basis of this performance.
Unfortunately, this medicine cannot have
been very effective, because shortly
afterwards he was bitten by one of his own
snakes and had to be rushed to hospital in
Mbeya where, it was said, the affected limb
was amputated. Sangu observers ascribed
his misfortune to witchcraft rather than to
the ineffectiveness of his medicine. I
assumed that he had failed to milk the snake
of all of its venom.
I noted more instances of snakes being
killed. Although snakes are still a common
sight in Usangu it likely, as suggested above
in the case of Puff Adders, that their
populations are declining in inverse
proportions to the increase in human
population and land use.
Sangu Ethnoherpetology
The Sangu (avasango), the indigenous
inhabitants of the Plains, recognise a
number of different kinds of snake (injoxa).
We should not expect to find a one-to-one
correspondence in every case between their
names for these and their scientific
designations. This is a common feature of
folk taxonomies, including the historical and
everyday classificatory schemes of English
(e.g. Berlin, 1992). It is also a feature of
other components of Sangu ethnozoology.
In some cases one Sangu term covers more
than one zoological species and may even
refer to species belonging to more than
genus. In other cases the Sangu give
different names to different subspecies or
colour phases and variants of the same
species, including animals of different age
and sex (where sexual dimorphism is
particularly marked). At the same time it
must be said that many Sangu names do
correspond to single zoological species,
especially in the case of large, common
and/or better-known animals. Small and
less familiar species, as well as those which
are not easily distinguished by zoologists
working in the field, are more frequently
grouped together. This no doubt also
applies to the Sangu classification and
naming of snakes, as the following
examination of indigenous taxonomy
suggests.
EANHS Bulletin 25 (3), September 1995
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All of the Sangu names for snakes
which I recorded are presented below,
together with notes on their identification
and other relevant observations. Unless
otherwise stated the zoological observations
are taken from Easterbrook (n.d.), Hedges
(1983), MacKay and MacKay (1985), and
Branch (1988).
inyatu (noun class 9/10), ilipingang’ombe
(5/6). Both of these names appear to refer
primarily to the African Rock Python,
Python sebae. inyatu is cognate with the
term for python in many other Eastern
Bantu languages, including Swahili chatu.
It was described to me as non-poisonous
and I was told that it can sometimes be
found in water. Although African Rock
Pythons can inflict painful wounds with
their teeth, they usually kill their victims by
coiling around and asphyxiating them,
before attempting to swallow them whole.
They rarely attack humans. It is, however a
good swimmer, and is known to prey upon
crocodiles, fish and other aquatic creatures.
ilipingang’ombe was also given as a name
for pythons and likewise was said to be
sometimes found in water. This is a
compound term which literally means ‘the
one which stops cattle’ in Sangu, indicating
that they are also known to attack livestock.
Its designation in noun class 5/6 implies an
animal which is large, bad, or both of these,
and it may be that ilipingang’ombe is
reserved for the larger specimens and inyatu
for smaller African Rock Pythons.
ilipingang’ombe is also the Sangu name for
a rainbow. I was unable to elicit an
explanation for this in the field, but it is
presumably connected with the Nyakyusa
belief that pythons (or at least one mythical
variety of them) cause rainbows when they
look up to the sky. The same beast is also
believed to live near rivers, and some
Nyakyusa therefore run away from rivers
when they see rainbows (Walsh, in prep.).
The Nyakyusa are near neighbours to the
Sangu and many of them are recent
immigrants to the Plains. The explicit
reference of the Sangu name, however,
suggests that this is or was also their own
belief, though it may have been inherited or
3
borrowed in the past (it may even have been
borrowed by the Nyakyusa from the Sangu).
imulalu (9/10). I would probably not have
recorded this name if it had not been for the
fact that I killed one in Utengule on 11 May
1981. I noticed it on the floor of my house
at night just as I was preparing to go to bed.
It lay curled up in front of the only door to
the house, blocking my way out. Lacking a
stick or other suitable implement, I chopped
it in two with a machete. Local opinion
held that it had probably come into the
village to escape the seasonal drying up of
the surrounding Plains and into my house to
escape the increasing cold. My cursory
notes indicate that it had a purple and black
back and white belly. It was fairly long but
only the thickness of a thumb. I was later
told that it was very poisonous. However, I
would now tentatively identify it as a
Purple-glossed Snake, Amblyodipsas sp.,
and therefore relatively harmless.
injoxa nyalulemba (9/10). This name
means ‘green snake’ and is probably a
generic term for the Green or Bush Snakes,
Philothamnus spp. It was described as a
green snake of pencil-thickness which is not
very poisonous and usually flees from
people. I saw one on 28 June 1981 climbing
a tree near a house at the edge of Utengule.
It was very thin and very bright green in
colour. These descriptions fit the Green or
Bush Snakes very well. Different species
are quite difficult to distinguish and the only
certain way is by scale counts. It would
therefore not be very surprising if the
Sangu, like other East African peoples,
grouped them under the same name.
injoxa nyaluhanjala (9/10). This name
means ‘firewood snake’, referring to the
resemblance between the snake when
motionless and a relatively thick and long
branch of firewood. The only other
information which I recorded on this snake
is that it is very poisonous and capable of
‘standing up’. This last observation implies
a cobra of some description, following their
habit of lifting the forebody and spreading a
hood when threatened. I would tentatively
identify this with the Egyptian Cobra, Naja
EANHS Bulletin 25 (3), September 1995
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haje, which is the right shape and size and
has a variable coloration which might be
taken to resemble firewood in different
stages of drying and possibly with lichens
on the bark. The Egyptian Cobra is also
reported to sham death and this could
account for the motionlessness which
increases its resemblance to firewood.
imfwila (9/10), ilifwila (5/6),
ilipingankwale (5/6). The description of
the snake which goes by one or other of
these three names (they are equated by the
Sangu themselves) leaves little doubt that
their usual referent is the Black-necked
Spitting Cobra, Naja nigricollis. imfwila
has cognates in other Eastern Bantu
languages, including Swahili (fira, also
swila), and in which it usually describes the
same and/or closely related species. I was
told that it is a black snake which spits
venom into the eyes and also bites, though
its attacks are not lethal because local
medicine is available to counteract the
poison (sufficient doses of which are lethal
to humans according to the literature).
ilifwila is the augmentative and emphatic
form of the same name, and may be used to
refer to larger specimens. ilipingankwale
means ‘the one which stops the francolin’
and suggests that these birds, Francolinus
spp., are among its items of prey (Procter,
1968, records the presence of three species
of francolin in Usangu, the Red-necked
Spurfowl, F.afer, the Coqui Francolin,
F.coqui, and Hildebrandt’s Francolin,
F.hildebrandti). I was told that it is large,
has a red throat, and sometimes climbs trees.
These are all characteristics of the Black-
necked Spitting Cobra, which in East Africa
usually has a patch of salmon pink
(sometimes deep red) scales below the neck
which are clearly visible when it rears up to
spit. It is possible that ilipingankwale
usually refers to larger specimens which
have this patch of colour. Otherwise one of
my informants specifically identified
ilipingankwale with ilifwila. The one-time
Southern Highlands Provincial
Commissioner, J. E. S. Griffiths, recorded
seeing a large spitting cobra on the road to
Rujewa (diary entry for 20 August 1958),
and I saw at least one Black-necked Spitting
4
Cobra, though of normal dimensions, while
living in Usangu.
ilipili (5/6), imili (9/10). This is the Puff
Adder, Bitis arietans. The usual form of the
Sangu name is ilipili, which also has
cognates in many closely related Bantu
languages, including the Swahili pili or piri.
It was described to me succinctly as short,
fat and very poisonous, and not surprisingly
is therefore put in the augmentative noun
class. imili is a form of the same name in
class 9/10, which is the usual class
designation for snakes. I only heard this
term used once in Utengule. This was when
a man was reported to be in some pain after
having been bitten by a snake while
working in his rice plot (this was in the
second week of November, 1981). I
listened to an argument about the kind of
snake which had bitten him: according to
one side it was an ‘ilipilu’ (presumably
misheard for ilipili), and according to the
other it was imili. This suggests that ilipili
and imili are considered to be different
kinds of snake, though I have no more
information on this point.
imoma (9/10), imuhando (9/10, or possibly
umuhando, 3/4). The first of these terms
has cognates in other Eastern Bantu
languages, including Swahili (moma), which
refer to the Gaboon Viper, Bitis gabonica,
and related species. imoma was described
to me as being similar to ilipili, the Puff
Adder (B.arietans), being more or less the
same colour, but longer and more
dangerous. This could conceivably apply to
the Gaboon Viper, although its colouring
and pattern are quite distinct to close
observers. In East Africa it is usually found
in forests or on forest margins, and while
Usangu lacks this kind of habitat, it is
possible that isolated specimens make their
way down to the Plains from the forested
escarpments in the south and west. An
identification with the Gaboon Viper would
also suit the description of imuhando, which
I was told was the most poisonous snake in
Usangu, causing instant death to unlucky
victims. Fortunately for snake-haters it is
said to be very rare. I was also told that it
can make a sound like a cock crowing. It
EANHS Bulletin 25 (3), September 1995
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was not linked to the imoma by anyone I
spoke to, though I did not ask if it was.
imuhando could also conceivably describe
the Gaboon Viper, which is capable of
producing a loud and deep hissing noise
when disturbed. However, on one occasion
I also recorded the compound name imfwila
muhando, suggesting a relationship, real or
perceived, with the Black-necked Spitting
Cobra. Further research is therefore
required to establish the precise reference of
these terms (imoma, imuhando) and whether
or not Gaboon Vipers occur in Usangu as I
have suggested they may.
I did not record any other Sangu names for
snakes, except for the mythical serpents
umutila and inyamfwila, which I discuss
elsewhere (Walsh, in prep.). Almost all of
the terms I did record refer to common
and/or notably poisonous species. This may
have been a function of my failure to probe
more deeply, or alternatively may reflect the
fact that most Sangu only know the names
of the species which they are most likely to
meet and those which they feel are most
likely to pose a threat to their lives. A
Kukwe (Nyakyusa) woman told me that
there are only four kinds of snake (i.e. four
named varieties that she knew of) in
Unyakyusa, in the hills and plains to the
south of Mount Rungwe, south-east of
Usangu. If, however, a much longer Sangu
list exists, then it should not be too difficult
to elicit it. The more difficult task will be to
establish the zoological referents of Sangu
names.
Conclusion
There are other dimensions of Sangu
ethnoherpetology which I have not
described above. Among these are
indigenous treatments for snake bite. One
treatment I was told about used the roots of
a short grass called ilidilimbuli (said to be
known as nsindu in Nyakyusa). These are
chewed and rubbed onto the bite, and can
also be carried around as a protective charm
against snake bite. Some people drink their
own urine as a cure for snake bite. Others
extolled the virtues of the ‘Black Stone’,
which is applied to the site of (bleeding)
punctures and stings and reputed to draw the
5
poison out. The ‘Black Stone’ is really a
piece of carbonised bone, and these are
supplied to Roman Catholic missionaries by
a mission procure in Belgium (Shorter,
1979). As far as I knew no one in Utengule
had one - the White Fathers were infrequent
visitors - and people were a little
disappointed that I did not have one myself.
There are presumably many other local
treatments which I did not record.
A fuller account of these and other
aspects of Sangu ethnoherpetology must
await future research and publication. I
hope that the notes I have provided in this
paper will form a useful starting-point for
this work.
Acknowledgements
My research in Usangu in 1980-82 was
funded by the then Social Science Research
Council of Great Britain, with additional
support from the Smuts Fund and Wolfson
College in the University of Cambridge. I
am very grateful to my hosts in Utengule
and all those who provided me with
information on snakes and related subjects,
in particular Eliuter Shinangonele, Betitha
Mwakalinga, and Ngwila Simuhongole. I
would also like to thank Ray Abrahams and
Alison Redmayne for their encouragement,
advice and other help over the years since I
began work on the Sangu, and Susan
Charnley for sending me a copy of her
unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. None of
them, of course, is responsible for the
evident shortcomings of this paper.
References
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Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Branch, B. 1988. Field Guide to the Snakes
and Other Reptiles of Southern Africa.
London: New Holland.
Charnley, S. 1994. Cattle, Commons, and
Culture: The Political Ecology of
Environmental Change on a Tanzanian
EANHS Bulletin 25 (3), September 1995 6
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Rangeland, unpublished Ph.D. Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and

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unpublished paper.

___________________________________
Martin T. Walsh, Natural Resources
Institute, Chatham, and School of African
and Asian Studies, University of Sussex,
U.K. (current [1995] address: Zanzibar
Cash Crops Farming Systems Project,